Roxane Gay on the biggest challenge feminists face today

Roxane Gay has arguably done more for feminism than any other author in the 21st century. However, the self-proclaimed 'bad feminist' is concerned, and it's a concern many feminists share.

The feminist movement is fracturing, and this is having a negative impact on the very goal the movement is trying to achieve: gender equality.

"In general I do think that as a culture we do try and pit women against each other all too often," Gay tells 9Honey ahead of her #feminist series of appearances taking place across Australia early next year.

Gay, 44, has been writing about gender equality and other social justice issues for the past ten years, with several short story collections and books published including Bad Feminist and memoir Hunger.

She believes division in the feminist movement is slowing progress when it comes to achieving gender equality.

"I think the patriarchy, and a lot of what the patriarchy is about, is to keep women divided," she tells 9Honey, adding that it serves prevent women from being able to "work together to overcome the patriarchy."

"So it's easier to divide and conquer," she says.

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Gay has two nieces aged six and eight, and she hopes that by the time they are adults they're not dealing with the same issues she herself is facing today.

"It's frustrating that we're dealing with the issues our mothers and grandmothers were dealing with," she says. "We're still trying to get women to admit that they're feminists, and that they're equal to men. So it's really disgusting that we have so much work to do."

For the #feminist events, Gay will be teamed up with so-called 'factual feminist' Christina Hoff Sommers.

While she says she and Hoff Sommers have "wildly different points of view", she looks forward to them demonstrating that it's okay to think differently while still achieving the same goal.

"Feminism isn't about women trying to become men," Gay says. "It's about achieving equity or parity with men in terms of pay, bodily autonomy and freedom."

Gay finds it "crazy" that debates surrounding birth control and abortion have stretched into the 21st century, citing Gloria Steinman who still regards procreation rights as the biggest issue facing women today.

She says women should be angry that they are still fighting for some of the same issues as their parents and grandparents. (Supplied )

"I agree," she says. "It's really about women having autonomy and women being able to make informed decisions about their bodies and to be societally supported in those decisions.

"What's really frustrating is that our bodies are controlled in terms of reproduction but after the babies are born we don't get support," she says. "We don't get maternity leave, there's no real societal structure in place in terms of childcare, especially for working class women.

"It's really interesting that people who are pro-life are only interested in the baby's life until it is born."

Gay is also concerned that conversations about childcare still focus on the mother.

"Oftentimes when we talk about childcare women say, 'Well my salary is going to childcare'," she says. "What about your husband's salary? When people say can men be feminists, of course they can. These are issues they need to understand and care about.

"These are things they need to care about and advocate for."

Gay will tour Australia in March next year. (Supplied )

While Gay is known as a passionate advocate for gender equality, she makes no apologies for so-called 'angry feminists' who are criticised for their vitriolic delivery of gender issues.

"I do believe that it's important to say that anger is not an unreasonable response to bigotry," she says. "Women should be angry. There's nothing wrong with that. And when women are angry it's not the only thing that we are. It's not our defining characteristic."

Gay's reach has grown far and wide, but she acknowledges there is still much work to be done. Still, she remains hopeful that the next generation will take up where she leaves off, adding that she sees the effect her work has on her nieces and other girls and young women.

"With my nieces I just try to model what's possible for a woman and it seems to be working because my youngest niece tells me that -- it's kind of cute -- she tells me that she wants to be famous like Aunty Rox because (even though I'm not famous) people will listen to me, because she comes to a lot of my events," the proud aunt says.

"And what's great about this is not that she wants to be famous, but that she recognises that people listen to me, and that's a possibility for a young girl, and so I just try and model what is possible for them and support their interests."

Gay says one of her nieces is into "princesses and engineering", a combination the author adores.

She remains hopeful gender equality will be achieved by the time her nieces are grown. (Supplied )

"I support both of these things," she says. "There's just nothing wrong with either of those things and I always try and listen to her and treat her like a person instead of an object I project things onto."

Through her shows, Gay meets many children influenced by her work and says parents play an incredibly important role when it comes to raising children who believe in equal rights for all.

"[Children] really are our magic wands and we keep messing them up," she tells 9Honey. "I think that we have really ridged gender roles for both young girls and young boys.

"It's really difficult to circumvent the roles young boys are meant to play and the roles that young girls are taught to play. I just wish that we could let them be, and give them more freedom to express themselves and recognise gender can accommodate a range of expressions."

Gay recalls an event she did in Seattle in the US where she was approached by a nine-year-old boy who is gay and had read her book Bad Feminist -- he was crying while waiting for her to sign his copy.

"I remember thinking wow, a nine-year-old read Bad Feminist and it helped him to accept himself and his sexuality," she says. "And it was just really touching to see that he's being parented in a way that allows that space for him. I wish I saw that with more children and so what?

Gay wants parents to support children in their choices and stop projecting their own ideas on them. (Supplied)

"They may change their mind when they are 20. Okay! As long as you've supported them during the most fraught years of their lives. That's what matters."

Looking back on her own childhood, Gay says she wishes she'd been better able to articulate to her parents the kinds of things she'd thought about, saying "fear and shame" often stopped her.

"I was raised really well by loving parents," she says. "The only thing I wished was I had been more able to articulate to my parents the kinds of things I thought about. I wish I had been more open."

When looking to the future, Gay says it's not about achieving perfection.

"I don't think that we need a perfect world," she says. "I don't think that everyone needs to get along, but I certainly would try to remove bigotry because there's a difference between not getting along and dividing ourselves so much that we can't even have conversations with one another.

"So I would definitely try and remove bigotry. And what happens in a word without bigotry?"

Roxane Gay is the author of Bad Feminist, a New York Times best-selling book as well as Difficult Women, Hunger and Not That Bad. In a controversial world-first, This Is 42 is bringing to Australia both Roxane Gay and 'factual feminist' Christina Hoff Sommers for a discussion on feminism from two very different perspectives. Topics covered will include the division of domestic labour, feminism perpetuated in media, social inequality, violence against women, sexual harassment and more. Book your tickets though the This Is 42 website.